School District of Altoona
Strategic Planning "It Starts with Why"

The school district has updated our Strategic Plan in order to make informed decisions about where we are going, and the actions needed to make progress and measure success.

One of the most important and valuable components of the process, is the practice of engaging stakeholders to set priorities and align resources in support of shared goals resulting in district-wide, long term goals and overarching strategies for continuous improvement. In short, this process will define success in the next three to five years, and guide how we will get there.

Engaging Stakeholders in Focus Groups

Our process included an opportunity for stakeholders - staff, parents and community, to come together in Focus Groups to give feedback and answer questions like,

What will success look like? What are our priorities? What are our strategic initiatives?
What are our core values or beliefs?

Those Focus Groups were held on January 10. Thank you to all of our participants for sharing your feedback!

Engaging Stakeholders in a Survey Process

Then in March, stakeholders had another opportunity to share their feedback regarding the process. There was a great response from 337 stakeholders! Feedback was given in the areas of Core Values, Indicators of Success, Areas of Strength and Opportunities for Improvement! See the results here.

Engaging Stakeholders in Forums and Town Hall Meetings

Survey results were presented to the board on April 3, and the leadership team worked together on a draft plan on April 4. The draft plan was then shared with the board and employees, and parents and community members had the opportunity to give their feedback on June 7 and 14. In all, 106 response forms were returned providing great feedback!